Leafs Rally Back From A 3-0 Deficit To End Their 8 Game Winless Streak

Added on Nov 17, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

One thing was for certain Tuesday night for the Toronto Maple Leafs(6-8-3,15pts) ; They needed to stop the bleeding. After dropping eight in a row they needed a win to put the season back on track, and 12 minutes into the game it really looked like it wasn’t in the cards. They quickly found themselves in a 3-0 hole to the Nashville Predators(7-6-3,17pts) , and by the end of the first they were down 3-1. It was so bad that Leafs Coach Ron Wilson almost left the bench.

“I tried to leave the building, but contrary to the fire code I think they chained the doors,” said Wilson. “I couldn’t leave. It was a Strange game to say the least. I’m glad we won. It’s one of those kinds of games that when you look back on it, hopefully it puts an abrupt stop to the slide we’ve been in. We can use it for momentum.”

Early in the second period Marcel Goc put in a short handed goal for the Predators, and it really seemed like it was all but a matter of the time winding off the clock. Thats when the Predators really started falling to pieces. They gave up 6 straight penalties in the 2 period, and let the Leafs right back in the game by scoring on four of them. Including two by Kris Versteeg. By the end of the period it was 5-4 Leafs, and thats how the scoring ended with a quiet 3^rd period.

Even though the penalties didn’t seem even, Nashville called for 8 and the Leafs called for 2, the Predators had no excuses for the way they game played out. Veteran forward Steve Sullivan said after the game, “We had them right where we wanted them, a fragile team down on the ropes and we didn’t take care of business.”

Predators coach Bary Trotz was much more blunt about the game then Sullivan. Trotz said “We deserved exactly what we got in the end.” He continued `We gave them momentum by taking penalty after penalty after penalty. When are we going to learn? You have a team down and out, you have them on the floor gasping for air and you let them off the mat. We stopped working, we stopped skating and therefore you take penalties.”

Toronto forward Clarke MacArthur talked about the winless streak they put together. Overall, it had gone 1-8-3 since opening the season with four straight victories. “That was a long three weeks, and i felt like three years.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping they can pile up more wins starting this Thursday against the New Jersey Devils(5-11-2,12pts.) The Predators will be facing a tough Montreal (12-5-1, 25pts) team who have managed 2 shut outs in their last 4 games on the back of goalie Carey Price.